David Byrd is the Founder and Chief Creative Officer for Raven Guru Marketing. Previously, he was the CMO and EVP of Sales for CloudRoute. Prior to CloudRoute, He was CMO at ANPI, CMO & EVP of Sales at Broadvox, VP of channels and Alliances for Telcordia and Director of eBusiness development with i2 Technologies.He has also held executive positions with Planet Hollywood Online, Hewlett-Packard, Tandem Computers, Sprint and Ericsson.

Some weeks go by so fast I find I need an extra day. This is one of those weeks. We have more going on at Broadvox than ever before and I need more hours in the day to keep up with it. We have a good team here in our sales and marketing and I am very proud of the work they do. Many of the items we address are unprecedented since we are in a developing market, SIP Trunking.

What a day yesterday proved to be. I did not intend to watch the Inauguration but at 10:35 CT, I realized I was at my computer and all I needed was an internet feed. Within moments, I was watching a historic event. Try as I might, I do not perceive the new President first as a black president. Rather, I view him first as replacing the previous president.

Normally, when I go to a good restaurant, I leave wanting to make something I had there. It can be something new or a pleasant surprise altering something tried and true. However, last week I purchased beef short ribs to serve as the main entrée for a small dinner party. Now, I have never eaten short ribs so I was thinking a lot about how to prepare them.

This week was both exciting and fun. It is always a pleasure to get our sales team together from across the country to share work experiences, stories, food and fun. This first meeting of 2009 was no different. Even as we face a challenging economic environment, the positive mood of the group supported our belief that 2009 will be better than 2008.

For me today begins with a bit of nostalgia. As I drove into work, I learned that Nortel announced this morning that it was filing for bankruptcy protection. This is not completely unexpected, However, just a few weeks ago, the discussion was about how they could survive until 2011. In 2011, Nortel has another major debt payment due and they would need to position the company over the next 18-24 months to pay that.

Okay pork was not part of this original list but it does go well with apples. Over the weekend, I made fried pork chops with a caramelized onion and apple salsa. Grilled shrimp and scallops served with linguini and pesto came in a close second as the recipe for today. The shrimp and scallops were fantastic!

No...this is not going to be SIP Trunking 101. I think most of you out there know what a SIP Trunk is. However, have you considered that most of the people we are selling them to have no clue. When I first heard the term SIP Trunk I was rather embarrassed to realize I had no understanding of what was being discussed.

I spent the last few months working on marketing and sales plans for 2009. Every time I think I have something workable, I consider the potential changes to our telecom landscape. Companies like Broadvox see tremendous opportunities to grow. Our SIP Trunking product saves a business money.

The holidays were a blast. My favorite new dish was the heirloom tomatoes with white truffle oil; a bit extravagant for recipes on this blog though.

RED: Yesterday was southern fried chicken with mac and cheese. I grew up in Virginia and it was almost a Sunday staple. Mine is different from my Mom's in that I brine my chicken and use my special red seasoning mixture. The mixture is for fried, sautéed or grilled foods.

New Year's Eve is the one of two days in the year when I cook without regard to anyone else's desires (the other day is my birthday). This menu consisted of canapés of salmon roe and heirloom tomato salad each resting on a cracker topped with crème fraiche. A third canapé was duck liver with truffles. The second course was a simple mix green salad with apple-smoked bacon, toasted pecans and walnuts, and thinly sliced strips of aged cheddar.